About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Iran executed 20 members of Kurdish groups

Attorney General Montazeri

In an exclusive interview with Iranian state run media IRIB, Mohammad
Jafar Montazeri, the Attorney General of Iran, said 20 Sunni prisoners
were executed at Karaj's Rajai Shahr Prison (west of Tehran) on Tuesday
August 2, but he did not mention their identities. Earlier, the
Judiciary in the Kurdistan province had issued a statement about the
execution of a "group of convicts" for membership in "Sunni militant
groups". The statement did not mention the number of executions or the
identities of the prisoners. Iran Human Rights is further investigating
these executions and will be publishing an updated report.

On Tuesday August 2, Iran Human Rights had reported
on the execution of at least ten Sunni prisoners at Rajai Shahr Prison;
including Shahram Ahmadi, Khaled Maleki, Mokhtar Rahimi, Bahman Rahimi,
Kaveh Veisi, and Kaveh Sharifi. On Monday August 1, the ward where the
men were being held was raided
by special guards in black gear and the prisoners were placed under
strict security measures. According to close sources, the Iranian forces
handcuffed and shackled the feet of around 30 Sunni minority prisoners
and transferred them to an unknown location. A confirmed source tells
Iran Human Rights: "They took a total of 36 people out from Hall 10, and
seven of them have only been sentenced to death in the lower court.
Their cases are still in review at the Supreme Court."
According to close sources, the family members of several of the
prisoners were informed by Iranian authorities to come in for their
final visit on Tuesday August 2 at 3pm Tehran time. "More than 20
families were told to come to Rajai Shahr Prison, and we're currently on
our way there," the wife of one of the prisoners told Iran Human
Rights. She insisted her husband was innocent and deserved a fair and
open trial. While the families were on their way to the prison, they
reportedly received phone calls from unidentified sources telling them
to meet at Behesht e Zahra cemetery instead for the funeral of their
family members.
Iran Human Rights (IHR) strongly condemns the execution of the Sunni
prisoners and calls for international condemnation of these executions.
“Many if not all of these prisoners were subjected to unfair trials and
sentenced to death based on confessions extracted under torture. Their
execution is a crime, and Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the
other leaders of the Islamic Republic must be held accountable for these
crimes," says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for Iran Human
Rights.